Reed Sheppard just lived out every Kentucky kid’s dream. ‘It was really special for me.’

A tie game, the clock ticking down to zero, the ball in your hands for one last shot and Kentucky across your chest. It’s a scenario that countless kids have played out time and again in backyards, playgrounds and gyms all across the commonwealth.

Reed Sheppard was no different.

“Yeah, for sure,” the 19-year-old Kentucky boy said with a chuckle Tuesday night. “That’s what everyone did as a little kid.”

Sometimes the shot didn’t fall. Hard as it is to believe, that happened to Sheppard growing up, too.

“And you get the rebound and they add the time on the clock,” he said, thinking back to those backyard days when he dreamed of being a Wildcat and getting a shot at glory with the game on the line.

On Tuesday night in Starkville, the kid from Laurel County lived out the dream.

Sheppard capped an amazing performance with a buzzer-beating runner in the lane to lift Kentucky to a 91-89 victory over Mississippi State, saving the most memorable shot in an unforgettable night for the very last second.

“Growing up as a little kid, I always wanted to play at Kentucky,” Sheppard said. “So being out there and being able to hit a game-winning shot for Kentucky, it was really cool. It was really special for me. And to be able to do it with this group of guys — that we’re all really, really close with on and off the court — was really special.”

This was far from a solo effort, but it was Sheppard who guided the Cats to victory down the stretch.

Kentucky’s reigning Mr. Basketball scored a career-high 32 points to go along with five rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and two steals. Sheppard scored 23 of those points in the second half. And 11 of them came in the final 93 seconds.

The last two won’t soon be forgotten.

To set the stage, Mississippi State freshman Josh Hubbard — a 34-point scorer Tuesday night — rolled around a screen and hit a long 3-pointer over the outstretched hand of Ugonna Onyenso to tie it up at 89-all with 8.1 seconds left.

Sheppard retrieved the ball, threw the inbounds pass to D.J. Wagner and immediately put his hands up asking for it back. Wagner was already running it up the court, so Sheppard followed behind him.

The speedy, shifty Wagner tried to penetrate left around Hubbard, but there was no opening. Instead of forcing the issue, the 18-year-old point guard had the awareness to pull back. He spun around and whipped a pass back to Sheppard at the top of the key.

Sheppard took one dribble and — with three seconds remaining on the clock — drove around Mississippi State’s KeShawn Murphy on the perimeter. He then went right at Hubbard, who was backpedaling to try and stay in front of the ball. Instead of continuing his drive, Sheppard lifted off the floor with a runner that Hubbard had no chance of contesting from his retreating position.

The ball fell straight through the net. The buzzer sounded. Adou Thiero bounded off the Kentucky bench and wrapped Sheppard up in a bear-hug. It was only a split second before the rest of the Wildcats mobbed him on the Humphrey Coliseum court.

The referees ended up putting 0.5 seconds back on the clock, but it didn’t matter.

Mississippi State’s last-ditch heave ended up, fittingly, in the hands of Sheppard, who stood still with the ball at his side until Thiero gave him a celebratory shove in the back and Antonio Reeves came over with an emphatic high five.

In typical Sheppard fashion, he gave credit to Hubbard — “He hit some big shots down the stretch,” the UK guard said — before giving the rest to his teammates in his first remarks after the game.

“A lot of that comes from my teammates and giving me confidence the whole game,” he said. “They were telling me in the huddles, ‘Just keep playing. Keep attacking. Lead us.’ And, you know, that’s huge. And they just kept putting confidence in me the whole game.”

He wasn’t perfect, but Sheppard and his coach could laugh about his mishaps afterward.

There was one big one toward the end.

With the Cats up 87-84, the ball in Sheppard’s hands and 28.5 seconds left, he made a freshman mistake. He dribbled around in the backcourt, trying to play out as much clock as possible while the Bulldogs tried in vain to steal the ball or foul him. Instead of holding on to it and taking a foul — or dishing a pass to the nearby Thiero or Rob Dillingham, both good free-throw shooters — Sheppard jumped in the air and let loose a heave all the way down the court in the direction of Reeves, who committed a foul while trying to track down the errant pass.

John Calipari was apoplectic, walking across halfcourt to scream in Sheppard’s direction.

“Well, I was about to choke him when he threw the ball deep,” Calipari said afterward.

Tolu Smith hit the two free throws to cut Kentucky’s lead to one. Sheppard made two more to return the advantage to three. But the back and forth set up Hubbard’s 3-pointer to tie it.

Calipari also noted after the win that Kentucky needed to make 3-pointers in the early going just to stay in the game. Sheppard made three of them in the first half and finished 4-for-7 from deep for the game, but there were a couple of heat checks that didn’t fall, one of which left Calipari visibly upset on the sideline.

“We were running stuff to make some 3s in the first half. He made a bunch,” Calipari said. “They went zone, he took one — a 40-footer — I looked at him, ‘Are you s----ing me? Like, why would you do that?’ … And then we put him in the middle of the zone, and he makes the right play.”

Calipari’s quibbles were minor. When Sheppard showed up in the media room, waiting in the back for his turn to talk, the UK coach spotted him and started nitpicking a little more, trying to keep a straight face.

“He’s in the back of the room,” Calipari finally said. “That’s why I’m saying that.”

Sheppard’s coach then revisited that game-winning shot that followed what could have been a crucial mistake.

“To make that play and not be fazed by it — his focus was on making the basket — it’s incredible.”

It was the second big win in a row for Kentucky, which dazzled in a 117-95 beatdown of No. 13 Alabama on Saturday. The victory over Mississippi State came six days after UK lost a buzzer-beater at LSU, the latest in a string of close games where the Cats came up short.

“It felt amazing,” Thiero said of being on the right side of such a night. “Right after the game, I was like, ‘Finally, things went our way for once.’”

Next up for 16th-ranked Kentucky: two games back in Rupp Arena against Arkansas on Saturday and then Vanderbilt in the home finale next week. These Cats (now 20-8 and 10-5 in the SEC) haven’t won three games in a row since league play began in January, but they have a prime opportunity to pick up two more against two of the conference’s weakest teams before the final regular-season game at No. 4 Tennessee next weekend.

Calipari was living in the moment Tuesday night.

“This was a big-time win. We’re gonna cel-e-brate,” he said, putting an emphasis on every syllable of that last word. “To beat these guys and how they’re playing right now? Big time.”

The Bulldogs (19-9, 8-7 SEC) had won five in a row, were projected as an NCAA Tournament team and were playing in front of a raucous crowd at The Hump, where Calipari is now 9-0 as Kentucky’s coach.

On a night when Kentucky fell behind by as many as 13 points and didn’t take its first lead until just 4:24 remained, the Wildcats stuck together and did enough to hang around for the finish.

For Sheppard, it was a dream come true.

“This is a huge win,” he said. “Down 13, their fans are rolling. They were rolling. They came out in the second half — they punched us in the mouth a little bit. And we stayed together and fought as a team. And that just shows — no matter what — as long as we stay together, we can fight and come back from any score. As long as we just stick together.”

Next game

Arkansas at No. 16 Kentucky

When: 1:30 p.m. Saturday

TV: CBS-27

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Arkansas 14-14 (5-10), Kentucky 20-8 (10-5)

Series: Kentucky leads 35-14

Last meeting: Kentucky won 63-57 on Jan. 27 in Fayetteville, Ark.

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